Curious Occurrences
by Kosura
Summary: It's been a year since the titans were defeated. He knows he should be happy, but for some reason, he just isn't. ArminxOC
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is set about 4-5 years in the future after the eradication of the titans, so Armin is about twenty. I apologize for any inaccuracies or if anyone seems out of character. I'm not entirely sure where Eren and Mikasa are in relation to this story but just know that they're not anywhere near Armin.

I'm daring to commit the ultimate sin of (gasp!) shipping a canon character with an OC because a) I really really want Armin to have a romantic interest and b) There's no canon character that I ship him with so I've had to improvise a bit.

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Chapter 1

He knew that he should be happy. Humanity had prevailed in a war they'd fought for hundreds of years, so why wouldn't he be absolutely overjoyed?

However, slumped over the table of an inn, Armin Arlert felt no inkling of happiness. Instead, he felt a sensation that he could only describe as empty. It was as if his emotions had been stolen from him, leaving him a soulless husk of a human.

He wasn't sure if he preferred this state of apathy to his debilitating anxiety attacks. Both were at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, but they were equally awful. And they both hit him suddenly, creeping up on him with no warning before rendering him incapable of doing almost anything.

This particular wave of depression had come at a rather inconvenient time. He had been eating dinner alone at the inn he was staying at when suddenly he couldn't bring himself to care about or do anything and found himself sprawled out face-first on the table. Nobody had said anything yet, despite how crowded the dining hall was. He didn't really want them to. He just wanted to lay there and feel miserable until he felt like getting up.

He was rather annoyed when a hand patted him on the back.

"Uh, sir? Are you alright?" A small voice asked tentatively. It was a girl.

He lifted his head off of his arms just enough to get a sideways look at her. She had a round, freckled face with large brown eyes. Her hair was long and the color of melted chocolate, plaited into two braids that fell over her shoulders. She appeared to be a worker at the inn, dressed in a plain green dress with a slightly dirty apron overtop of it.

He put his head back down. "I'm fine, thanks," He mumbled. "Well, do you need anything? Any kind of help?" She asked again. "No. Just go away," He replied, growing increasingly irritated. She sighed. "Sir, _please, _I really can-"

"Leave me alone!" He practically yelled. It came out much harsher and louder than he had intended, and felt his stomach knot up with guilt when she flinched. The room got quieter, murmurs spreading through the room. The girl's cheeks flushed pink.

She clenched her jaw. "Fine. I'll leave you alone, if that's what you really want," She said, turning to leave.

He wasn't sure why, but in that split second part of him decided that he really did want some kind of help after all. He reached out and gently grabbed her wrist. "No - wait – please. I'm sorry. Sorry. Can I… Can I talk to you?" He managed to say.

When she turned to look at him, the same look of genuine concern was in her eyes.

"Uh - sorry. Is that a weird thing to ask?" He added hastily.

She shook her head. "No, it's not. That's fine. I can't talk now, though. My shift ends in twenty minutes. If you'll wait that long, I can come talk to you. Okay?"

He found himself nodding.

"Okay."

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This chapter is kind of short, so sorry about that. I already have the next chapter written and just need to edit it, but I already know that it's longer than this one.

Reviews would be appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

She returned twenty minutes later as promised with two mugs of steaming tea.

"Sorry for the wait," She said, sitting down across from him and sliding a mug his way. "Now then, what did you need?"

He put his head in his hands and ran his fingers through his long, messy blond hair. "I don't know. I'm just… I've been feeling pretty awful lately and I don't know why," He replied.

There was a pause, and he looked up to see her taking a long sip of tea. "Well," She said finally, "From my experience, I've learned it's best to just talk until you feel better."

The thought didn't thrill him. Looking up, though, he was overwhelmed with the feeling that she was someone he could trust. There was such an unparalleled kindness in her expression, her entire demeanor telling him that she honestly, genuinely cared about him.

So he talked. At first he was hesitant, feeling slightly awkward about telling her about his past. He soon loosened up, and was finding no shortage of things to talk about. He started with his childhood, and recounted the scene on the day the wall was breached at Zhiganshina. He moved on to his time in the Survey Corps, and cringed as he thought about all of the lives he saw cut short brutally.

He talked, and talked, and talked, until he was speaking so quickly that he was gasping for breath. It was if all of the emotions and memories that he had held inside of him were bursting out all at once in a stream of discombobulated stories and thoughts. He could almost feel himself growing lighter and lighter until he finally ran out of things to say. He realized he was crying, and wondered when that had begun as he wiped his face with his sleeve.

The girl hadn't said anything the entire time, simply watching and listening. They sat in silence for a bit before she spoke.

"I lost my father to the titans," She said at last. He looked up at her, but she was staring down into her now empty cup. "He was in the Survey Corps, like you were. It was about a year and a half before Wall Maria was breached. He went out on a mission beyond the walls and he… never made it back. They couldn't even recover his body."

"We were living in a small town near Wall Rose when _that _wall was breached. We were close enough that I had many friends in Trost who didn't make it out alive. After that, we moved further inside the walls to this town and set up this inn."

"For a while, I was pretty depressed. I found it pointless to keep on living. I lived in constant fear that the walls would be breached again, and that I'd have to cope with the loss of even more people that I loved. I had frequent panic attacks, some of them getting so bad that I became physically ill."

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand, even if it's just a little bit. I'm not going to pretend to know exactly how you feel because I definitely don't. It sounds like you had to see and live through some horrible things when you were very young, and I wish it didn't have to have happened that way. But I care. I really do. And I know that it _will _get better, if you hold on for just a little longer."

Her hand had slipped into his while she was talking, and she squeezed it reassuringly. She gave a small, sweet smile and let go of his hand as she stood up.

"Well, it's getting pretty late, so I'm going to leave now. My name is Elsie, by the way."

"Oh. I'm Armin."

She smiled again. "Goodnight, Armin. It was a pleasure talking to you." She turned to leave.

"Wait! Elsie!" She turned back to look at him.

"Thanks for everything. Also, I'm really sorry I yelled at you earlier. I'm not usually like that and I honestly didn't mean it. I promise."

She gave another smile. "Sometimes when we're sad, or lonely, or upset, we do things that we don't mean to. Sometimes we accidently hurt people. But I understand that. I've already forgiven you."

With that, she left to go to bed, leaving him to think for a while before he did the same.

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I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks to those who have already followed or favorited this. Reviews would be appreciated!


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